Kerri Knotts

As an experienced business executive, engineer, and entrepreneur, Kerri L. Knotts has worked in both the Aerospace and Oil and Gas Industries. Knotts is the Vice President of Commercial Spaceflight for Barrios, a leading aerospace company serving all of NASA’s Human Space Flight programs and the commercial space industry by providing engineering, software, and technology integration solutions for complex space initiatives including the international space station, space launch systems and vehicles, and teaming on the future lunar landers, Lunar Terrain Vehicles (LTVs), commercial space stations, Earth to LEO transport vehicles, and launch vehicles.

After graduating from WVU in 1994 with a BSAE, Kerri went to work at NASA’s Johnson Space Center and held numerous technical and leadership roles supporting the Space Shuttle and the International Space Station Programs, the advanced Spacesuit and Moon/Mars development programs. With the flight ops and EVA subject matter expertise developed from training space shuttle missions, she helped develop the International Space Station from concept to flown, operated and sustained. She executed many mission critical operations as a certified NASA Flight Controller in the Mission Control Center (MCC) for both programs. Knotts then went on to lead an organization developing the architecture and requirements to build a moon outpost as part of the Constellation Program.

In 2014, Knotts joined a Houston-based start-up fuel-additives company, PetroActive, as CEO, and helped grow the company which was eventually acquired. Knotts went on to found multiple other companies servicing the oil and gas industry. She was co-founder of Ventures Yonder, a capital venture company, Chairman and Managing Director of Value Additives, an oil-field technology and services company, Partner in Ballistic – Oilfield Services, a drill-bit sales and services company, Owner/President of Papalogistics, a logistics company and Founder/President of Work Force LLC (a start-up incubator and management support org).

Knotts has served on the Mechanical and Aerospace engineering Advisory Committee (2018-2022), serves on the WVU Statler College of Engineering Advisory Committee, was inducted into the Tau Beta Pi Engineering Honor Society as an Eminent Engineer in 2017, was elected to the WVU Foundation Board of Directors in 2021, and delivered the 2022 Statler College Commencement Speech. She dedicates her free time to her two dogs and cheering on her two sons as they begin their own engineering careers.